Buy firewood locally, ash-borer foes advise

To prevent the spread of the tree-destroying emerald ash borer, agriculture officials say residents should buy only locally grown and harvested firewood.

The state has set up two quarantined areas in the Chicago suburbs where ash borers already have been found. The quarantines apply to 51 square miles in Kane County and 64 square miles of northern Cook County around the infestation sites found last summer in St. Charles, Wilmette, Evanston and Winnetka.

The half-inch-long, metallic-green insect is a wood-boring beetle native to Asia and has killed more than 25 million ash trees since it was confirmed to be in North America in 2002. The boundaries of the state quarantine represent seven years of possible migration from the detection sites because an adult beetle can fly about half a mile per year.

But they cross much larger distances--even oceans--as stowaways in wood products. Containing the bug's spread is crucial, state officials said, because there are no treatments to cure infested trees.

The state quarantine means people cannot remove from the area any non-coniferous firewood--a broad range because it is difficult to distinguish between hardwood species including ash, oak, maple and hickory once a log has been cut and split. Anyone caught removing prohibited firewood from the quarantined areas without a permit faces fines of up to $500.

Last week the U.S. Department of Agriculture also announced a statewide quarantine restricting the movement of hardwood firewood, as well as many other ash materials, across Illinois lines without proper documentation.

Warren Goetsch, the state Agriculture Department's bureau chief of environmental programs, said finding firewood close to where residents live is a good rule of thumb even if they are not in the state's quarantined areas.

"If we can promote the use of locally grown, locally harvested firewood, we minimize the potential for other things to go with that firewood, and we also help the local economy," Goetsch said.

To keep the ash borer from spreading into state-owned forests, the state also has banned visitors from bringing their own firewood from quarantined areas into state parks, fish and wildlife areas, conservation areas and other properties owned or managed by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

Many state parks offer firewood for purchase through local vendors and concessionaires, which allows the Department of Natural Resources to monitor and control the firewood's source.